1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system for sorting commercial articles and a method therefor, particularly to a system suitable for use at a distribution center which sorts a wide variety of commercial articles by small amounts according to their destinations, and a method therefor.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, commercial goods to be distributed to retailers such as super-markets or convenience stores are delivered, for example, by trucks from a center serving as a base to and from which commercial goods are concentrated and dispersed. Commercial goods to be distributed to retailers are collected by the vendors (wholesalers) of those goods and then sent by them to a distribution center where those goods are sorted by ordered amounts according to the retailers to which they are to be sent, and the goods thus sorted by ordered amounts are distributed according to their destinations.
Commercial goods sent by vendors to a distribution center (transportation center) are divided into two classes at an entry dock according to whether they should be stored or passed. Some commercial goods are stored in a storage area by palettes, cartons, pieces, or boluses.
For storage, for example, an automated storage/retrieval system (AS/RS) or a palette rack coupled with the use of a forklift is used. The AS/RS includes storage racks with pick-up conveyors between the rows of racks, and stacking cranes. Commercial goods (existing as units such as cartons or boluses) on palettes placed on a rack are taken out as appropriate by a hauler according to shipment information, and transferred onto a conveyor for shipment.
Commercial goods thus picked are sent to a preparatory sorting area where, if goods exist as pieces or boluses, they are packed into containers or cartons. The containers and cartons are then transferred to a sorting area for shipment where they are sorted according to the purchasers to which they are to be sent. Then, they are stacked on cage carriers, and transferred to trucks for shipment.
Sorting is performed as follows. Goods sent by providers are given labels printing data necessary for sorting such as the kind, number, purchaser, etc. of the goods. Goods with labels attached are placed on trays and carried through a conveyor to a sorting area.
Next, scanners placed at respective sorting blocks and connected to a controller read the data, and distribute required amounts of goods to the slots of nominated blocks according to the instructions from the controller. Repetition of this operation results in the distribution of goods to the sorting blocks according to the orders from purchasers.
During this operation, barcodes printed on the label of each good are read by the scanner. On the label two kinds of barcode are printed: one includes information necessary for managing the good, and the other information necessary for distributing the good. Thus, when goods are received, a scanner placed at an inlet reads the barcode necessary for good management to check the contents of the goods, and the goods are guided from there to a line. Then, another scanner reads the barcode for good distribution.
The barcode is prepared based on JAN (Japan Article Number) or ITF (Interleaved Two of Five) which deals with the information related with commercial goods and their cases.
The goods thus sorted are carried separately, and required amounts of them are transferred into containers arranged along conveyor routes according to destinations. Cart drivers drive carts carrying containers along circuit routes connecting junction areas where the containers are classified according to their destinations, or transfer disjoined goods on their carts into containers.
At a distribution center, goods are classified according to the purchasers and categories, and to the aisles and racks of the purchasers"" shops where they are to be displayed for sale, and separated according to the classification. If required amounts of them are packed in cartons (made of paper), the goods are handled as cartons. If goods exist as disjoined pieces, they are divided by required amounts, and the required amounts are put into foldable plastic containers in the order of arrival. The cartons and containers are then loaded on cargo carriers having casters such as carts or wheeled cages, or on carrying means such as dolleys or handcarts.
Then, they are sent to shipment lines, transferred to trucks, and distributed to individual shops for sale. The goods thus distributed to individual shops may be directly transferred to the racks of the shops, to be arranged there for sale, or may be temporarily stored in the back rooms of the shops.
At a distribution center, commercial goods are loaded on carts or wheeled cages, with no due attention being paid to the characteristics of the goods, the state of their packages, the state of their loading, or, if the goods are classified to the same category, the racks of the shop to which they will be displayed for sale, and the order of display.
Thus, during transference, a plastic container may be placed on a cardboard box; a heavy object may be placed above a light object; a good to be displayed on a rack may coexist with another good to be stored in a storeroom; or a good to be displayed on a rack may coexist with another good to be displayed on a different rack.
If what is described above happens, the cardboard carton or the light object might collapse, or the good might be wrongly stored or placed on a wrong rack for display, and, for correcting the error, it might be required to make repeated to-and-fro movements between the rack and the storage room, or between the different racks. To avoid this, the shop manager, when he receives goods in, for example, a wheeled cage, must take out them all from the wheeled cage, and reclassify them according to the characteristics of the goods, their packages, and the racks on which they are to be displayed for sale.
Of those goods, some must be placed on racks for display, others in a cooled display case, and still others in the storeroom. However, it may take long to distribute them all to proper places, and goods requiring cooled or frozen storage to keep freshness may be left without receiving no proper care for temperature management.
The object of this invention is to provide a system for classifying commercial articles whereby it is possible to improve efficiency when it is required to classify a wide variety of goods by small amounts according to the orders from purchasers, and a method therefor.
To achieve the above object, the system for classifying commercial goods according to this invention comprises a plurality of sorting blocks with respective entry slots through which the blocks receive goods according to their destinations; a reading means for reading data necessary for the classification of goods, provided to incoming single or grouped goods; and a controller which, based on the data necessary for the classification of goods read by the reading means, nominates an entry slot for a given good, wherein, when a slot is nominated by the controller for a given good, a direction indicator indicates the direction towards the slot.
With the system of this invention being configured as above, the direction indicator placed on one site of a sorting block indicates, for a given good, the direction towards the nominated slot through which the good is to be placed in a block. This arrangement makes it possible for the hauler to immediately put a good into a nominated slot without looking around at the sorting blocks at large, which will lead to the improvement of work efficiency. Moreover, because this will moderate the burden imposed on the hauler, the number of wrongly hauled goods would be greatly reduced.
The term xe2x80x9csorting blockxe2x80x9d used here refers to a range of slots one hauler can cover. The controller is not limited to a terminal of a host computer which controls the sorting system at large, but may be a terminal to independently control a single sorting block.
The direction indicator generally may take the form of a liquid crystal display where the direction towards a nominated slot is indicated by an arrow, but is not limited to any specific display, provided that the direction towards a nominated slot can be signaled.
To achieve the above object, the good sorting system according to this invention is further provided with an inflow sensor to detect the inflow of a good through a slot; and an alarming means which alarms as soon as it finds that, for a given good, its entry slot identified by an inflow sensor is different from that nominated by the controller.
With the good sorting system of this invention being configured as above, if a good is passed through a wrong slot, it is recognized by the sensor and then the alarming means is activated to generate a buzzing sound or a blinking light to alarm. This arrangement will make it possible to greatly reduce the number of wrongly hauled goods.
The inflow sensor may include, for example, a commercially available infra-red beam sensor. If an infrared beam sensor is used for a slot, and a good is hauled into the slot, the good or a part of body of the hauler interrupts the infra-red beam, the interruption signal is transmitted to a controller which recognizes that a good is passed through the slot.
Alternatively, a weight sensor may be used that detects an additional weight when a good is hauled into a slot. The mode and placement of the sensor is not limited to any specific ones.
To achieve the above object, a good managing system according to this invention comprises an inflow good managing system provided with an input feeding means through which providers can enter their name when putting goods into the system; a means for reading information indicating the property of goods and attached to the goods; a means for storing in memory a list of good data carrying the name of providers, the property of goods scheduled to be received for the day and their numbers; and a control means based on inflow data which compares the name of providers fed through the input feeding means with the list of good data, and writes the number of actually received goods into the memory of the list storing means.
The good managing system of this invention being configured as above recognizes, based on the output from the good data reading means, the name of the manufacturer of a good, the property of the good, and the number of its scheduled input, and, in addition, the name of the provider, because the provider can feed his name through the input feeding means.
This arrangement will make it possible to efficiently manage inflow goods according to the name of providers, simply dependent on identification codes generally attached to goods such as a JAN code or ITF code.
To achieve the above object, a good delivery system according to this invention comprises a movable loader consisting of a rack for storing goods, a conveyor placed in parallel with the rack, and a platform movable along the conveyor, thereby facilitating the transfer of goods from the rack to the conveyor or vice versa.
With the good delivery system of this invention being configured as above, the hauler can simply haul a good from a rack to a platform in order to transfer it to a conveyor, and readily move the platform to a rack which stores a desired good. This arrangement will reduce labor required for hauling, thereby improving the efficiency of hauling. Further, this arrangement will improve the precision of hauling because hauling is achieved based on the signal from a terminal sensor.
To achieve the above object, a sorting-for-shipment system according to this invention carries unit cases containing goods to be shipped through a conveyor to a sorting-for-shipment area, sorting there the goods according to the orders from purchasers, and transferring the sorted goods by carts for shipment, wherein a buffer storage line to receive unit cases carried from an inflow area is provided to the conveyor leading to the sorting-for-shipment area.
With the sorting-for-shipment system of this invention being configured as above, it is possible to store containers and cartons sent from a storage area or from an inflow area at the buffer storage line, and thus to selectively transport the containers and cartons that meet given stacking requirements in an orderly manner.
This arrangement will make it possible to stack goods in the same category in different wheeled cages according to the location of the racks on which they will be displayed for sale, and the state and weight of their cases.
To achieve the above object, a sorting method according to this invention consists of, to sort goods on a delivery line according to specified requirements, returning to an upstream line the goods that do not meet the requirements, and, if they meet the requirements, pass them in order through a delivery line for subsequent processes.
With the sorting method of this invention being configured as above, goods on a delivery line are sorted according to specified requirements, and, if they are found not to meet the requirements, they are returned to an upstream line, while if they are found to meet the requirements, they are passed in order through a delivery line for subsequent processes. This arrangement will make it possible to selectively deliver goods that meet specified requirements, and thus to transfer them into trucks according to the property of goods, and the state of package, thereby obviating the need for reclassification at the purchasers"" shops.
To achieve the above object, a good sorting system according to this invention comprises a first conveyor to carry trays bearing goods to be sorted; a second conveyor branching off from the first conveyor; and a plurality of slots at which containers are arranged to receive goods according to their attributes for sorting, to which are further provided the plurality of sorting lines consisting of racks placed opposite to the second conveyor; a sorter to guide each tray carried through the first conveyor to one of the sorting lines; a means for reading the identification data of each tray passing through the first conveyor; a memory means to store a good information table by which to compare the data of goods contained in the tray with the identification data of that tray just read, and the pattern of slots arranged at individual sorting lines; a control means to control the sorter, based on the identification data of the tray and the good information table both stored in the memory means, such that the tray may be guided to appropriate one among the plurality of sorting lines; and direction indicator means implemented to respective blocks of the racks, so as to indicate the No. of the slot and its direction.
With the good sorting system of this invention being configured as above, trays bearing goods to be sorted are carried through the first conveyor; the tray is guided by the sorter to one of the sorting lines with a second conveyor running in parallel; a good information table by which to compare the data of goods contained in the tray with the identification data of that tray just read, and the pattern of slots arranged at individual sorting lines are stored in the memory means; and the sorter is controlled by the control means, based on the identification data of the tray and the good information table both stored in the memory means, such that the tray may be guided to appropriate one among the plurality of sorting lines. Then the direction indicator means implemented to respective blocks of the racks indicate the No. of the slot and its direction.
This arrangement will improve the efficiency of work which requires a wide variety of goods to be sorted by small amounts according to the orders from their purchasers.